Africa Rice Center Operating Temporarily from Bamako
Tel: (223) 222 33 75; Fax: (223) 222 86 85; e-mail: warda@cgiar.org

Update on evacuation

• In principle, all internationally recruited staff (IRS) and non-Ivorian senior General Services Staff (GSS) have been evacuated from Côte d’Ivoire.

• Most of the evacuated staff are on leave to meet with their family members after the traumatic experience in Côte d’Ivoire.

• The Center was able to retrieve essential equipment and all its vehicles from Côte d’Ivoire.

Update on the Center’s current operations 

• The Africa Rice Center is operating temporarily from Bamako with members of the senior Management team, a minimum number of finance and administration staff. 

• The last batch of scientists and support staff from Bamako who were waiting to go to Bouake when the crisis struck, are continuing their research activities in Bamako.

• Work in the regional stations in Nigeria and Senegal has not been disrupted by the Ivorian crisis.

• Networks and Consortia coordinated by the Center (ROCARIZ rice network for West Africa, ECARRN rice network for East and Central Africa, Inland Valley Consortium, African Rice Initiative) are functioning smoothly.

• The Campus in M’be is intact and the genebank is continuing to operate with the help of local staff.

Next steps 

• An emergency meeting of the Center’s Board of Trustees will be held in Nairobi, 29 November – 2 December, to decide on the next steps.

• Full operations are expected to resume in January 2005. Friends and partners of the Center will be kept informed of all the developments.

End-of-the-year leave

• In keeping with its tradition, the Center will remain closed from 23 December 2004 and will reopen on 4 January 2005.